And so it begins anew

A new chapter begins for Unreal Slackers, paving the way for an exciting future. Plus: Unreal Fest, Epic First Run, and FAB delays.

Nick Pfisterer • September 25, 2023

Hey everyone,

It's Nick, the creator of Unreal Slackers. You probably know me as pfist on Discord. If you signed up in the past 24 hours: thank you, and welcome! If not, you're receiving this newsletter because you signed up to be notified when the new Unreal Slackers website and identity were launched. That day has finally arrived.

Unreal Slackers is now Unreal Source, and we're expanding beyond Discord to offer an independent publication dedicated to helping you keep up with the Unreal ecosystem. There is more to come in the future, but for now, enjoy our first monthly newsletter.

📰 In this month's issue:

• Unreal Fest 2023 tickets on sale
• Epic First Run program launches
• Unreal developers step up to welcome Unity refugees

This month in Unreal

• Unreal Engine 5.3 is out. This release contains a lot of improvements to the rendering tech — Nanite gets faster performance for masked materials, Lumen delivers faster performance on consoles, Virtual Shadow Maps are now production ready, the list goes on. It also introduces multi-process cooking for faster platform builds, plus a few experimental features such as the Skeletal Editor and orthographic rendering. Check out the official blog post and feature highlight video to learn more.
• Unreal Fest 2023 is just around the corner. Epic's annual conference for Unreal developers is happening October 3-5 in New Orleans. Tickets are still on sale – and going fast. Get your tickets here before they're gone! Sadly, I won't be there this year, but several folks from the Unreal Source community will be in attendance. Maybe someone should coordinate a meetup? Speaking of deadlines...
• Get this month's free Marketplace content. It's still available, but only for another week! On October 3, Epic will cycle it out for October's free content. Remember: you're just "purchasing" an entitlement to use the content. You don't have to download any of it right away. I recommend grabbing everything, even if you don't need it — you might someday.
• Check out the 2023 Epic MegaJam submissions! The theme for this year's jam was "ANTIQUATED FUTURE", and people came up with some fun interpretations, as usual. There were 482 submissions this year. Go check them out! One of my favorite's is Found Sound, an unusual one-button game with a striking visual design and some fun experiments with MetaSounds.
• FAB launch is delayed until 2024. We got a brief post on X (formerly Twitter) stating that they need more time to deliver a great experience on day one. No news on when in 2024 the platform will launch, but they said they would share news next year about how to migrate your work from existing marketplaces (Unreal Marketplace, Sketchfab, etc.). I'm bummed about this because I really want to see how the new platform will compare to the current offerings, and what it means for the Epic Games Launcher. Will we finally get that long-rumored revamp to the Unreal Engine tab?
• The Epic First Run program has launched. For games launching on or after October 16, 2023: if you're willing to launch with a 6-month exclusivity window on Epic Games Store, Epic is offering you 100% net revenue during that period. Will that be enough to sway PC game developers who would otherwise launch on Steam? I'm working on an article that explores the program and who this might make the most sense for. Program details and FAQ available here.

Unity sets the internet ablaze

If you told me a month ago that my first newsletter for Unreal developers would include a story about Unity, I wouldn't have believed you. But here we are. In case you've been living under a rock, here's what you missed:

• Unity announced a controversial new pricing model.
• Many developers were disappointed. Garry Newman, owner of Garry's Mod and Rust creators Facepunch, had some choice words for Unity.
• Unity tried to offer clarification but left many with more questions.
• Finally, Unity apologized and offered a significantly revised proposal.

It's been pretty hard to ignore, and we've seen a significant influx of Unity refugees over on our Discord server. It has been encouraging — but not surprising — to see Unreal developers stepping up to welcome Unity refugees, offering them resources, and answering their questions. Game developer Joe Wintergreen created a microsite specifically for Unity developers who want to get started with Unreal. It tackles a lot of the misconceptions that many people have about Unreal Engine and its business model.

Personally, I feel good about sticking with Unreal over the years. No matter how you feel about the revised terms proposed by Unity as a result of the outcry, for many, the faith they had in Unity is gone. I feel for anyone coming to Unreal from Unity. Obviously I welcome them and wish them well, but switching game engines is a monumental task. So if you see a Unity developer who is evaluating Unreal for the first time and seems overwhelmed or confused, consider lending a helping hand. But – and this is important – don't be weird about it. Don't treat people as if they are finally seeing the light. Just welcome them as you would any other newcomer to Unreal.

In other news:

• Apple accidentally made a gaming console. Well, sort of. The new iPhone 15 series has switched to USB-C for charging, and that also opens the door for connecting high-resolution external displays – if you have an iPhone 15 Pro. The standard iPhone 15 apparently only supports USB 2 speeds and doesn't have enough bandwidth. Regardless, it's pretty wild to see someone playing the latest Resident Evil game with a PS5 controller and a high-resolution display, but running on their phone. PC and console developers: does this make you reconsider developing for mobile? I'm personally still focused on supporting Steam Deck, but I'm interested to hear from you all on this.
• Steam celebrates 20 years. Valve made a great microsite that takes you on a trip down memory lane, complete with notable events and top-selling games from every year Steam has existed. The platform has grown and changed a lot over the years. Perhaps we will be looking back on the history of the Epic Games Store in the same way someday.
• Speaking of Steam: In case you missed it earlier this year, Simon Carless of GameDiscoverCo broke the story that Valve appeared to be quietly banning newly submitted Steam games that used AI-generated assets if developers couldn't prove they had the rights for the assets used to train the algorithms. Interest — and VC money — in LLM-powered AI technology has reached a fever pitch as of late. It's a fast-moving industry, and there has been a lot of discussion and debate around the implications; particularly in regards to copyright. I think that is the crux of what's happening on Steam. Valve seems to be playing it safe until there is more clarity on the legal and regulatory side of things. I highly recommend reading the full piece from Simon's newsletter. Are you using AI-generated content in your Unreal project? If not, how do you feel about this wave of AI tech? What are your concerns? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Community highlights

• Japanese developer NIHIL INANE STUDIO recently announced Lost Fragment, a survival horror game made with UE5. The gameplay teaser looks very impressive! The developer says all the art is made by hand, and no photogrammetry was used. That's pretty damn cool. They even released a viewport capture video to assuage any skepticism that this was real gameplay.
• In a similar series of events, when the first teaser for single-player FPS UNRECORD was released earlier this year, a lot of people were skeptical that this was really a game. Co-founder Alexandre Spindler responded with a viewport capture to prove it was really a UE5 game. This one might use photogrammetry, but it's impressive all the same. You can wishlist the game on Steam.
• Over Jump Rally is an indie racing game I've been following for a while. It's a love letter to the classic Sega Rally Championship games, made in UE5. The developer recently shared a video highlighting some new beta gameplay and killer music. Game over, yeah! (Fellow fans of Sega Rally know what I mean). Wishlist on Steam.
• Developer Matt Newell has been working on Lushfoil Photography Sim, a unique game that allows you to freely explore beautiful environments and capture photos. A photo walk simulator, if you will. I was reminded of this project recently when he shared new footage of the French alps environment. It looks so relaxing! Wishlist on Steam.
• If you enjoy stylized fantasy RPGs, Elements is an upcoming game that looks worth your time. The game reminds me of classic third-person adventure games from the PS1/2 era, like Spyro the Dragon, and there are Ocarina of Time vibes, too. This one is open world and supports co-op, which sounds like a blast. The developer recently showed off some WIP footage of scythe combat against a big, burly enemy that doesn't seem very pleased about it. Wishlist on Steam.
• I recently discovered @endwar1338 on X (formerly Twitter), who is a hobbyist UE5 user that is just cranking out these mesmerizing materials that use no textures. This sine wave is one of my favorites. They even share the full material graph in each post so you can see how it's done, and potentially use it in your own projects. Really cool!
• Finally: I talk a lot about how Unreal Engine has grown over the years metaphorically speaking, but X user @ozmant recently pointed out that it has grown significantly in the literal sense, too. Unreal engine 4.10 occupied 7.73 GB of disk space, while 5.3 occupies a whopping 37.5 GB. That gives you an idea of just how much is going on under the hood these days.

Until next time

That's a wrap on our first newsletter! I'm excited to finally start writing this newsletter along with the new website, and I hope you found it useful. I've got a few articles up on the site for you to check out – including this one about the new name and my vision for the site – with more on the way.

If you can't wait until the next newsletter, I will be sharing breaking news, updates, and community finds over in our Notes feed.

Keep in touch, and send us anything you think is worth sharing. Until next time.

Thank you,
Nick aka pfist